The invention relates to a new and improved user interface (UI) for a telephone handset. The UI of hand portable phones for cellular or cordless systems does not just support the call handling alone. In the recent generations of hand portable phones more and more new applications have been integrated in the phones. One of the latest applications is web browsers, e.g. the one offered by Unwired Planet.
Navigation among the menu items, handling of the individual applications and editing of text as input for the applications are very difficult to perform, because the most commonly used type of navigation is carried out by an up/down scroll key. When pressing the key three times, the cursor moves three steps. Scrolling in this way through the menu or through the phone book is very time-consuming.
EP 463856 B suggests to substitute the scroll key with a roller ball or a thumb wheel. However, it is difficult to implement a roller ball known from a computer mouse into a hand portable phone. Today, the size of hand portable phones is comparable with the size of a mouse device for a computer.
However, a thumb wheel has now been implemented in a small portable phone, and this is described in EP 679003 A. This thumb wheel is placed in the upper left corner of the phone. The wheel is quite small, but the diameter still prohibits a more user-friendly positioning. In general, the user wants to operate the phone by using only one hand, but the position of the thumb wheel forces the user to use a two-hand grip—the right thumb for operating the keys on the front cover and the left thumb for operating the thumb wheel. This means that the user is not able to make a call from the phone book when he is carrying a bag or just writing with the other hand. Left-handed users are compelled to use a right-handed grip.